We are constantly sacrificing our daughters: Playwright Eve Ensler

American playwright-activist Eve Ensler, best known for her seminal feminist play "The Vagina Monologues", says the circle of violence against women will stay unbroken in a patriarchal society unless men step up against it.

In her latest book "The Apology", Ensler examines the sexual abuse she faced at the hands of her father when she was five and the apology that he should have given.

Ensler said the abuse she faced as a child could not be prevented because her mother was financially dependent on her father.

"My father had all the power, my mother came from a poor family. By the time my father started manifesting this very frightening behaviour, she had three kids and what was she going to do with three children?
Ensler said years later she confronted her mother, who called up crying a few months later and said, "I realised I had sacrificed you."
Recalling a similar incident while she was in Afghanistan with a family, Ensler said, "They had sold their daughter so that the family could keep living. This is something that happens across the world. We are constantly sacrificing our daughters and giving them up to make some kind of economic security. This has to be deeply examined and looked at."
"The non-apology is holding patriarchy. What we have to do is invite men to be proud gender traders and to come out, be the ones who are going to lead the way, just like the early feminists did..."
"Growing up, I had this fantasy that one day my father will wake up and come to his senses and render an apology to me. But that never happened. Writing this book helped me narrate my story."